


The Eyes in the Mirror

by DarkMage13



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game), Guild Wars Series (Video Games)
Genre: And a teenage dragon going through her angst phase in life, Braham is there too, Don't tell him I said that because he would never let that go, F/M, I swear Joko is a drama whore and I love it, This is the fanfic to display the lich in all his glory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 10:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15289749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMage13/pseuds/DarkMage13
Summary: SPOILERS FOR LIVING WORLD SEASON 4 EPISODE 3: LONG LIVE THE LICHThe Commander was not exactly happy with the lich declaring war like this, but what made her the most angry was the kidnapping of her friends, including the man who shed tears over her death. This was personal.Axis of the Order of Shadows didn't want to believe what he saw in the mirror. He didn't, at all.





	The Eyes in the Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> Soo uhh if you didn't see the warning SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS FOR LIVING WORLD SEASON 4 EPISODE 3
> 
> And minor blood parts but nothing too extreme. Plus terrible fashion choices and lewd hand holding.

_The Eyes in the Mirror_

* * *

A man dressed in black robes and stained armor awoke to find himself being dragged by his arms through a sickly smelling palace. Bones littered the floor, the stone walls dusty and never cleaned in hundreds of years. Dog-headed Awakened with glowing eyes glared at the thief.

"Where…Where in the gods am I?" he demanded of his captors. He was attacked and blacked out, somehow. Whoever attacked him was faster than his reflexes. The awakened that dragged him through the halls opened up two large doors and tossed him inside. He landed face first, the rotten smell of flesh flooding his nose. On his knees he forced himself to sit up. His eyes came upon the eyes of the tyrant lich: Palawa Joko. His face was rotten, the grey flesh falling off his face. Jewels adorned his chest, shoulders pieces made of skulls oozed black tar.

Axis couldn't believe he was actually in front of this monster, alive no less. "Oh, you," he spat at the lich, staring at the side of the room. It had a nice rug. "What do you want?"

Palawa Joko smirked as he got off his throne and leisurely strode over to the man. "I have an offer you cannot refuse. Believe me; you won't get a better deal anywhere else, including your pathetic friends."

He snapped his fingers.

The binds on Axis faded away. The man stood up, still staring at the wall. Axis rolled his eyes. "I highly doubt it."

"Ha! Oh I like this one. You'll be a fitting one in my army one day," he spoke as if he was talking to the audience of minions before him, not the thief. "But no matter, one way or another you will work with me. Come now, I will show you your future."

The lich walked off into his chambers. A royal dog shoved the thief forward. "Are you a fortune teller now?" he sneered, begrudgingly walking inside.

Only a couple of minions were inside. Joko stood in front of his mirror, flexing. Axis wasn't sure whether to run at the first chance or attack the lich. He was unbound, he had a feeling Joko could just catch him in five seconds if he tried to flee.

"Have you ever noticed what a person is like in life?" Joko asked, still admiring himself in the mirror. "Most of mortals waste their time over stupid things."

Axis had to scoff. "But not you, I'm assuming."

"Oh yes. I had big plans in my youth. Being as old as I am, you sometimes forget what it was like. But seeing you reminded me of it all. Defenseless, useless. This vessel serves me much better, but nothing has truly changed. My likeness is as admired constantly still as it was back then."

The royal guards pushed Axis forward towards the mirror. His heart accelerated. He was way too close to the lich. What was this tyrant going to do? Kill him slowly? Painfully? Torture him for information? Even though he can just kill him on the spot and make him into an Awakened?

"Look in the mirror," Joko said, having his servant turn the mirror to face Axis. He saw himself in his black and red robes, his black armor glistening in the dark skylight shining in. Dirt and scratches painted his face from being kidnapped. Joko snapped his fingers. "In life I had it all, and now I still do."

In the mirror, Axis watched as the tall, rotting lich with a cast of magic, shattered into a living man. Axis' jaw dropped. He looked exactly like him, down to the jawline. The only difference was Joko's dark glowing blue eyes.

This was freaky beyond measure.

Joko smirked using his face and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Interesting how we look so much alike, don't we?"

Interesting wasn't cutting it. Weird and disturbing more like. "And what does this have to do with this 'deal?'" Axis asked, feeling a sense of dread oozing out of the hand Joko put on his shoulder.

The lich snapped his fingers and the mirror presented Axis in golden Awakened armor, Megara in her usual blue armor leaning on his arm, smiling so bright like the sun.

"You can have the blue in your future. No longer would you be a pathetic lowly peasant, you would be an immortal prince worthy of her."

Axis looked away at the illusion. "I don't care about her," he muttered. "And she doesn't care about me."

"Pah! Mortals always denying their pathetic feelings," Joko shattered the illusion and walked around, still wearing the face of his youth. "I'm not a fool. The Commander wears many faces but she's terrible at concealing emotions. And so are you."

"You would just kill her and make her into your slave anyways!" Axis growled.

"Together in life or death. One way or another she'll be with you, the very thing you've always wanted."

"I'd rather be eaten by a dragon before I let you force her to be with me," Axis muttered. "Why don't you just use my face yourself?"

"I am not stupid. The hero is a mesmer. She could spot the fake from miles away. But you're the real deal. I promise to let you live if you lure her here to me, and then you will get the blue you deserve."

He felt sick but he had to stall for time. They were planning a mass assault. "Why your greatness, why use me as a lure when she's already coming to you in the first place. Scarab plague was a decent enough motivator. How about you just demoralize her on the way up?" he said. "Make me a Mordant Crescent instead. Prop me up and dangle me out like bait. I am better to her if I am alive after all."

"Now you've caught on!" Joko said, turning back into his lich form. "You will be at my side then. A youth who so bore resemblance to me, maybe one day you'll be just like me! The great Palawa Ignacious Joko!"

The mere thought of being someone like Palawa Joko internally and thoroughly disgusted Axis to the core. Joko snapped his fingers and suddenly Axis was dressed in Mordant Crescent wrappings and golden armor. He had no idea what was more horrifying, the fact the lich looks like him, or that he was going along with this plan.

* * *

"Where. Is. He?" the hero Megara said, pointing her blade at Troopmarshal Olgun. Aurene the adolescent blue dragon flew overhead, watching her champion interrogate the Awakened general. "Where is Axis? I know you and your Awakened minions took him."

"He's…" the troopmarshal gasped, dying slowly. "A part of His Majesty's Circle now…"

Rage rushed in Megara's blood. Joko took him. First it was Taimi, now it was Axis. Who else was the sick lich going to take from her next?

She stabbed the greatsword into the troopmarshal, officially killing her.

"What now?" Melaine, her sylvari friend asked her. Aurene flew off, no longer sensing her champion in danger.

"We move on Joko's fortress now," she said through gritted teeth, feeling limp and hopeless. Depression took over, and her dragon companion whined in response. She was probably far too late. Infected by the scarab plague and turned into an Awakened. Axis was gone.

* * *

Axis sat in Joko's main chambers. Strangely, the scarab plague inside a jar on a table was repulsed by the Awakened dog trying to claw at the jar. He did his best efforts so far to keep away from the plague. Joko was out and about ordering his minions to prepare for the commander. Axis tiptoed over to the jar and held out a piece of Awakened flesh covered in tar to the scarabs. It was repulsed once again.

Ah, the tar. Axis covered his armor in the stuff, and sure enough the plague has no interest in him. The mirror in Joko's chambers lit up. The man walked over and touched the flickering mirror, and in a purple haze, showed an image Axis didn't want to see.

A human who looked just like Megara was being dragged brutally across the stone floor. Limp, blood was smeared on the stone in her path. Joko laughed to himself as he watched his servants drag the look alike across the floor. "Oh I cannot wait to see the real deal," he mused. "Her suffering will be quite exciting."

Axis tore himself away from the mirror. He felt sick.

He hoped the woman had a plan.

* * *

The entire group was at the gate to Joko's fortress. Taimi, Gorrik, a prickly cactus sylvari named Canach, a tall norn named Braham, and a giant charr named Rox. Megara was the only human there, for the scarab plague found all humans but her a suitable target.

"Canach! Is that gate ready to blow yet?!" Megara shouted as she stabbed another Awakened with an illusionary stab of her greatsword into the ground.

The sylvari whistled as he set more explosives.

More Awakened appeared. "Canach! Today would be good!" Braham grumbled as he slammed a mace into the head of a mummy.

A champion of Joko rose from the earth, summoning forth a sandstorm. The entire group went spinning in circles around the champion.

Canach ran over, sword and shield at the ready. "Do you need my assistance?"

Megara blocked an incoming blow from Joko's Champion. "Canach! Get back to work we can handle this."

"Oh I finished rigging the gate ages ago. You were taking forever so I 'd thought you need my help."

"Not funny," Braham grumbled.

Canach smirked, slamming his shield into a mummy. "Agree to disagree."

Megara stabbed her blade into the ground, stabbing the Champion of Joko with an illusionary blade from the ground before he had a chance to summon a sandstorm to send them spinning. The champion fell to the ground, dead once again.

Canach held out a button to the woman. "Commander would you like the hon-"

She lifted up her great sword and glared at him. "Just blow the damn gate Canach!"

The sylvari chuckled and blasted open the gate. The group prepared themselves for Joko's army and the lich itself.

Humans alive but barely moaned in pain, limping forward. Scarabs radiated off of them.

Megara's blood ran cold.

Taimi's eyes widened. "Oh no."

Gorrik pushed up his glasses in horror at the sight. "Third generation of scarab plague…"

The two set up an emergency shield to prevent the plague victims from getting out and infecting the entire world.

"How are we going to get in?" Megara asked, urgent to get inside and face her pain head on. "The shield won't hold long…"

"Leave it to us, mortals." The ghost of Queen Nahlah appeared behind them. By her side was her twin sister, Queen Dahlah.

"Find another way in," Dahlah told them. "And give our regards to dear Joko." The twins turned to the army of ghosts standing at the ready. "Brothers and sisters! This time we wipe out the plague!"

The entire army rushed forward, channeling their powers into the plague bugs.

"Commander!" Braham called out to Megara. "I think there's another way in the sewer." He jumped off the side of the bridge into the polluted river of crystallized sludge and swam to the sewers on the side of the fortress.

"Braham! Wait!" Megara called out, but her words fell on deaf ears. "I'm going after him. Everyone fall back to Rytlock's position across the bridge!" She jumped down into the Awakened tar, climbing into the sewer grates.

Tar covered the entire area, dripping off the ceiling of the passages. She felt disgusted, her battle dress covered in tar stains. Her armor dimmed its glow. The powers of Joko overwhelmed her magical armor.

She was vulnerable in more ways than one. She reached the end of the grate and found Braham fiddling with a gate lever. "That was reckless, Braham!" she scolded him.

The norn shrugged. "And?"

Megara sighed, smiling at her friend. "And…Let's go find Joko." Her smile faded immediately at the mention of the lich's name.

"That's what I thought. 'Can't die?' Everything can die, only question is how?"

* * *

Aurene searched the skies for her champion. She felt the dread and pain the poor woman was suffering, and she wanted to comfort her, but she couldn't find her.

Her other champion, Shiori, sat by a campfire at the charr Rytlock's position. Anticipation boiled in her stomach. She so desperately wanted to be the field with her friend, but she was not immune to the plague. She played with the lightning in her grasp.

Aurene swooped down and nudged the red haired elementalist.

"What does she want?" Rytlock asked, reading a report from the supply lines.

Shiori could tell something was wrong. "Aurene? What is it?"

_Where is she? Where is Megara?_

"She's inside Joko's fortress, why?" the woman reached out and touched the dragon, being shown a vision.

Megara was frozen in place. Joko strode over to Axis and stabbed him in the gut with his stave. The thief was Awakened into a slave, and Joko handed him the means to go and torture the commander.

Shiori fell back in shock. "Oh no, we have to save her!" She climbed on the back of Aurene, and the dragon took off into the sky in search once more of her champion.

No one was allowed to harm Aurene's champions.

* * *

Walking up the stairs in the fortress, Megara felt some comfort from the tall norn, but it wasn't enough. She was dreading what she would see, especially after stumbling corpses disguised as her that were brutally tortured. Joko kept appearing to mock her with his giant ghastly projections. More importantly, he barely mentioned Axis, until now.

"What a shame, the feeling of betrayal is so painful so...I don't know, no one betrays me or else they're dead, ha!" Joko mused as his projection stared at Megara down the hallway full of traps.

She pulled out her greatsword Eternity and pointed it at him. "What do you even mean?"

"Your precious boyfriend decided to join me instead of you and your band of idiots," Joko stated. "Not that I blame him, you're just a pathetic mortal with a shiny greatsword that 'reflects the stars' and can do parlor tricks. Blah! Try to even get past these traps, mesmer."

The stone hallway was loaded with floor traps and lasers hidden to the naked eye.

Braham raised an eyebrow. "And I'm the idiot in this scenario."

Megara smirked as she blinked across the halls, disabling the traps with ease. She made it out at the end of the hall, humming a song.

"That's cheating!" Joko declared, pointing his finger at her.

"You also said having a dragon is cheating. Did you honestly think a bunch of simple traps stops a mesmer?" Megara mocked. "I thought the oh-so-great and powerful immortal Joko would be smarter than this. I feel insulted."

"You peasant, I have the power of illusions too!" he snapped his fingers and a projection of Axis in golden Awakened armor appeared before her. Braham ran up to her side.

"No…" she whispered, her pain breaking through.

"You were too late, hero," the projection of Axis spoke, his voice corrupted and echoing with the sound of croaking bugs. "You failed to save me. I hope you live with that for the rest of your life, pathetic girl. How many must die for you? You refused to give me what I wanted, and now look at me, I suffered because of you."

"Stop it!" she cried. "Stop it Joko! Please!"

"Don't listen to it, it's just an illusion!" Braham told her, slamming his mace into the illusion and shattering it.

"First it was Tybalt…And Forgal…And Sieran, then Tegwen, Mingxia, Eir, Trahearne, Taimi…Now I lost Axis too…" she said, tears brimming on the edge. "Everyone I know dies…"

"Oh if this is how the hero reacts to the poor souls who die for her, I guess I am just dealing with a fake. No crybaby can possibly be the one who stole my army and killed a god," Joko said. His protection disappeared.

"Hey, you okay?" Braham asked the woman. Now that he saw how guilty she was, how much of a toll everything took on her, he felt like a jerk for treating her so poorly in the past.

She wiped away her tears. "I…I want to kill that lich."

Braham chuckled. "That's the attitude. Come on, you'll get your revenge against him."

Climbing up into the fortress and into Joko's personal chambers, Megara braced herself. Where was Axis? Where was the Awakened she was expecting?

She took a step forward and was frozen in place by a magical barrier. Joko's projection appeared before her. "How disappointing. And honestly, unexpected; I thought you would present better." He eyed her up and down. "You look terrible. The Commander of the Pact, Hero of blah-blah-blah. Rendered useless by a simple parlor trick."

Braham's eye twitched in anger. "Oh no you don't! Give him one for me Commander!" The norn charged into the barrier, pushing her out and taking her place.

She stumbled forward and turned to Braham, now frozen in place. "I will, Braham, for you, Taimi…And Axis."

Joko rolled his eyes. "That's your ace in the hole? Morons so besotted with you they're willing to sacrifice themselves? Blegh, and I thought the love-struck pathetic cabbage was bad enough. Haven't enough people died for you?"

Guilt panged her heart again. The illusions of Axis claiming that she failed were just a reminder. How many people were to die for her? She closed her eyes, trying to hold back her tears. One slipped out, but she remained vigilant. Opening her eyes, she glared down the projection. "Show yourself, Joko! You threatened my home, my friends, my people, I will not let that go unanswered."

"With relish," the projection said, disappearing. Megara stepped forward into the room. A mirror glimmered in the musky moonlight. At the other end of the room was Joko, looking around for not just her.

"That pathetic mortal, I knew I should have just killed him sooner. He ran off somewhere," he muttered to himself. He noticed the commander, the person of his obsession before him. He straightened up, his staff at the ready. "I should have known killing him would make him listen to his god-king…Now you will listen to me."

Megara lifted Eternity, pointing it at him. "Let me tell you this right now, you sick lich. You're not a king. A king rules his kingdom, cares for his subjects, and makes sure that he does the right thing. You, you don't care about any of your subjects. You're a tyrant who starves and tortures the people he lords over. And for what? To make them into his ignorant worshipping army until they rot away into nothing. If there's one good thing I've learned from killing Balthazar, tyrant, is that gods can die."

"And that's what it's all been about, eh, Commander? You and I-two comets on a collision course. War. Plague. Gods. Dragons. I've seen them all. They come and they go like tides. But a worthy nemesis, that is rare indeed."

A shuffle from above. Landing beside Megara was an alive Axis, wearing white robes and golden armor covered in tar. "How worthy of a nemesis is she if you have to resort to dirty-handed tactics to provoke her?" the thief snarled at the lich.

"Y-You're alive!" Megara exclaimed. "…What's with that hideous outfit?"

"I'll have you know," Joko pointed his staff at her, taking great offense to her insult. "That is carefully designed by my own genius."

Axis sighed. "I didn't want to die…so I had no choice. I'm sorry, but I am here now, always at your side, Megara." He pulled out his scythe, at the ready to fight.

She wanted to cry tears of happiness on the spot. He was here, alive. Her heart was racing. She finally knew, after all this time, what his loyalty meant. "Thank you."

"How adorable, the two love birds together again," Joko mocked them. "Lovers in life, lovers in death, how about undeath? I've seen that too, love always dies. It always does."

Megara glared at him. They weren't lovers…not yet anyways. "Cut the monologue, let's do this."

The two humans prepared their weapons. Joko smirked. "By all means."

Axis was blasted against the wall, locked into place just like Braham. "No!" Megara screamed. She turned back to the lich.

"It's just you and me. An historic moment!" he disappeared into the ground, flooding the floor with the plague. "When I stood toe-to-toe with the destroyer of dragons. The executioner of gods." The lich was nowhere in sight. Megara danced across the room trying to find the tyrant while avoiding the scarabs crowding the floor.

"Okay Megara think…" she mumbled to herself, standing on a platform by the mirror. Her own reflection in it showed her multitude of clones of herself. She closed her eyes. Energy charged up in her blade. She breathed in and stabbed the great sword into the ground, shattering Joko's illusions, including the scarabs. She ran over and whirled around, summoning a horde of berserker phantasms at the lich.

"The greatest villain in the world!" the lich laughed.

Megara channeled a beam of light at him. "That's my line."

"Oh ho, Commander. You do know how to flatter a lich," he said, putting up a shield lazily to block the beam. "I am glad we have this time together."

She ran across the room to slam her blade into his shield, shattering it. The lich was pushed back, laughing at her maneuver. "Admit it; the norn is never this fun."

He disappeared again. The floor was covered in the illusion of bugs again. Megara charged up energy again to dispel it.

"A question: do you love pain as I do? Live this long and sensations lose their savor," he asked appearing behind her. He blasted her back with more scarabs to the face, but they repulsed off of her. The pain was immeasurable however, and left her weakened. "One yearns desperately for something to cut through the ennui, pain is always…piquant. But tis better to give than receive no? Makes one feel alive…Well you know what I mean."

"What must it feel like to live such a wasted existence?" she fired back, limping forward and forcing herself to straighten up. "That you're reduced to nothing but to inflict pain upon people for your own sick enjoyment? What do you even have to live for anymore?"

"I could ask the same for you, Commander. You died and came back."

"Because I still have something worth fighting for that isn't relative to me," she declared, raising her great sword to summon more phantasms to barrage him. "You, you only fight for yourself."

Axis and Braham watched the battle unfold. Axis so desperately wanted to get in there and fight by her side. He was once again helpless to help her, just like with Balthazar. He couldn't take it if she died again.

Then he thought about it. Her statement. She didn't come back because she wasn't done with her life, no, it was because she had to save Aurene, save the world, save her friends. She was willing to pass on and rest, but her duty, her compassion, her drive forced her to return to suffer more in this miserable life. She wouldn't be fighting the lich that plagued his homeland for so long if she didn't return. She sacrificed her death to take on their burdens. How many traumatizing deaths must she endure before she rest?

Joko sent out another wave of scarabs to her person. She tripped on her own feet, latching onto Eternity's silver handle to balance herself.

"This is really how you fight? Your form is terrible. Do you actually ever beat anyone?" Joko stopped and stared at the weakened woman.

Axis glared at the lich, thinking about how he bested her in a duel when they met.

She got back up, pulling Eternity out of the floor. She laughed to herself, a chill running down Axis and Braham's spines. "You know something, Joko? You're right. Wars. Plague. Gods. Dragons. I've seen them all. They come and go like the tides of time," she repeated the same words back at him. She took a step forward, dragging her blade across the floor, the scratch like nails down a slate of unpolished stone. "But so does evil. So does fake gods, so does liches, and so does terror." She ran at him, her great sword leaving a trail of black and red in its wake, and slashed at Joko.

He blocked her with his staff. "Where's the verve, the panache? I expected more."

She shoved all of her body weight into it and knocked Joko's stave out of his hands. "There's your panache." She slid across the floor to grab the staff but it went right back to his hand.

Giant scarabs crawled over to her, exploding on her and knocking her halfway across the room. "Oh look, the norn and traitor is crying," Joko said, adding insult to injury. "You're just a tiny worthless illusionist who can only pull off parlor tricks."

She stood up. She wasn't going down to this lich. "Can a tiny worthless illusionist pull off this parlor trick?" Stabbing her blade into the ground again, she duplicated herself, taking the place of one of the six. Her voice echoed across the room, booming with the power of a god. "Try to find me, fake king." Every time the real Megara moved the clones mirrored her movements. "I can be anywhere." The clones multiplied into 6 more.

The lich was stunned as all 13 illusions bombarded him with their swords. They shattered themselves, leaving the real mesmer alone again. She backed away as more Awakened were summoned, clones forming off of her.

"I admit it…" the lich leaned on his staff, having not expected an attack like that. "I've indulged in a few calculated fabrications to bolster my myth. I hoped yours was more than that. Perhaps it is."

Axis wanted so desperately to say, yes. Her myth, her legend was real; she didn't have to do a thing to it.

"While we're having this little chat," Joko continued. Megara and her clones rolled her eyes. This guy really loved talking. The lich looked at one of the clones taking swipes at an Awakened. "Who dresses you? I mean, really? You wore  _that_  for this occasion?"

She stopped in place, putting her free hand on her hip. Her clones mirrored the action. "Excuse me? I'm not the one who looks like a half-eaten corpse left in the sand by land sharks."

"Says the one who looks like a blueberry," Joko said, disappearing into the ground again. "Why persevere? It's folly. Everyone knows I can't be killed!"

"That's what they said about gods." Megara turned and saw a giant wall of scarab plague coming right at her. She blinked past it. Unfortunately it revealed herself to the lich. She turned, Eternity pointing at the lich's illusions. "I'm thinking that's one of your fabrications calculated to bolster your myth."

"I see…" Joko reappeared behind her. She twirled around, slamming Eternity into the lich and sending him flying. "All right all right, well played, you've made your point. Let's talk about this." Joko stood back up and began to gather power from his minions.

"You honestly think I wouldn't fight back? Or even try to reason with you? Nothing you have shown me indicates sorrow. I'm done talking," she declared. Megara conjured her mini clone army and raised her great sword again. Wells appeared at her feet, giving her and her phantasms speed. In the blink of an eye she and all the clones darted forward, casting a mass gravity well that covered most of the floor of the room.

It slammed Joko into the ground repeatedly, destroying the remaining scarabs and knocking the Awakened grunts down. "This…cannot be…the end!" he screamed. He went limp on the floor, defeated.

His power broke. Braham and Axis could move again.

Megara just stood there as her clones shattered. She held Eternity with aching arms, gasp for air. She stood there in disbelief. A mass gravity well couldn't have possibly killed an immortal lich….Could it? She thought he was lying about his immortality, but a part of her knew his words had some truth to it. Disturbing even so, she came into this without much of plan because of her pain.

Braham walked over. "Whoa, you….I think you killed him. I mean I think you really killed him!"

Axis ran over to her as she dropped her great sword in exhaustion. "You alright?" he grabbed her hands. "I'm so sorry about…"

She looked up to the man with a smile. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're alright." She squeezed his hands back.

His heart nearly melted at her smile. Axis looked over at Joko's dead corpse. "Though…are you sure his immortality is just posturing?"

She walked a little closer to inspect the corpse. "Appearances can be deceiving but…" The lich wasn't moving one bit. "I don't trust this."

Braham pointed to the Awakened grunts. "Look, they're dazed. They're not under Joko's command. We…We won!"

A voice laced with the sound of a scarab croaked from the lich. "Did you…?"

"Oh no," she gasped. Megara magically pulled her great sword to her grip but it was too late. The three of them were frozen in place by Joko's magic. Megara's glare was straight at the lich.

"The rumors of my immortality are drastically…" Palawa Joko raised his head up, reaching out to his staff. "Understated." He looked right at the woman. "Oh the Light in the Darkness, you look so disappointed. So impotent." He stood up and limped forward, leaning all of his being on his staff. "I feel for you, I really do. But let's be honest…" he sat down on his seat. "You knew, in your heart." He snapped his dislocated joints back into place. "Eventually, you will watch before you, unable to act as I use the body of the man who willingly threw himself at you so many times it was pitiful to watch, to inflict the slow torture I have planned. You will die, having your own emotions used against you." He turned the mirror in the room to face them. He looked into it; showing the face of a once-alive human who looked scarily like Axis, save for the glaring blue glow of the lich's eyes.

Snap. He bent his neck at an inhuman angle. "Fear not, the world will not forget you. The scars you've gouged into it spell out your name for all to see." Another sickening snap. His neck was realigned.

"I confess I was happy to take credit for your 'victories.' But did you ever stop to wonder what that says about you? That so many bought what I was selling?" he pushed himself up to stand with his staff. "They call me a monster and you a hero. The world expects Palawa Joko to dare to throw reality into chaos." He glared at her with his blue eyes. Her spine shuddered, like beetles crawling up her back. "But surely no mortal would be so monumentally  _stupid_  as to destroy a dragon, the life force of this world." His stole energy from his minions, revitalizing himself. His voice echoed and boomed with power.

"Let alone two." He dropped his staff. "And a god to boot? Perhaps they will finally thank me for luring you to me…So that I. May save the world. From  _you_ ," he smirked at her.

In a way he was right, she did cause everything to get worse. She couldn't do a single thing; retaliate with words or with a blade. But no, she was frozen, unable to act. Her heartbeat was off the charts. Once he was done with his monologue he would torture or even possess Axis' body to torment her into insanity. She was trapped again, just like with Balthazar, but this time, it wasn't to draw out Aurene. No, it was to fulfill a sick twisted desire to reduce her into a pathetic slave once her mind was destroyed.

Something blue out of the corner of her eye flew past the window. She kept her eyes on Joko as to not alert him, not that he was noticing anything, he was too busy gloating in his dramatic speech. Axis saw the blur too.

"And once you're gone," Joko turned away to bask in the moonlight. "Everyone will flock to my embrace." He faced her again. Blue and red blurred past him, not a single noise was made. "They will all love me! Palawa Ignacious Jok…"

He couldn't finish. Aurene flew into the room and tackled the lich to the ground. The rider, Shiori fell off face down on the ground. The enraged dragon bit off the head of the lich.

Megara got flung back from the explosion of magic. The screams of Joko echoed in the room. Axis was also flung back from the blast, the blue energy going straight into his vision. He groaned in pain, covering his eyes as he lay on the floor.

"Axis!" Shiori ran over to him.

Braham smirked at the sight of Aurene tossing the lich's body into the corner. "Heh, praise Joko."

Shiori and Megara stared with wide eyes at the protective dragon devouring the lich.

"Aurene…?" Megara asked, shocked that the dragon was actually flat out eating a rotten corpse. "What...What have you done?!" She stepped forward, another blast of magic erupting from the dragon.

"Maaaaaaybe we should let her be," Braham said. "She has a lot to digest."

She wanted to gag. "That makes two of us."

Shiori leaned down by Axis' side. "You okay?"

Megara ran over to him. He had to be alright, he just had to be.

Axis pulled his hand away from his eyes, most of the pain fading as soon as it came. "I'm...I'm okay."

Shiori waved her hand over his closed eyes, healing and relieve the ache and remaining pain. "You sure?"

"Yeah...It's not that painful…"

Megara placed a hand on his. "You absolutely sure? Can you see?"

The man opened his eyes, blinking several times. "Yeah, I can see, clear as day."

The two women gasped.

"What?" he asked.

Braham looked over. "Whoa, is that supposed to happen?"

Megara pointed to the mirror across the room. "You might wanna…"

Axis stood up and limped over to the mirror. The sight of his own eyes was horrifying. "They're...They're…"

"They're no longer brown," Shiori said.

"They're blue," Megara finished. "How?"

"And glowing!" he exclaimed, blinking over and over, hoping, wishing his eyes would go back to normal. But they still remained bright deep rich blue. In the moonlight his eyes were practically glowing. "No no...No! How?! I look like…I look like that monster!" He turned and glared at the corner Aurene was sitting in. "He just had to have his last laugh….didn't he? The bastard…"

He looked at Megara. Concern was written on her features. He looked away, refusing to make eye contact.

"Whoa what is Aurene eating?" Taimi asked, walking into the room. "Oh…"

Braham chuckled. "Her dinner."

"Okay...but that's not what…" she looked at Axis, his eyes glowing. "Whoa what happened to you?"

"Taimi!" he ran over to her and kneeled down to her eye level. "Joko's magic got into my eyes and made them look like this... Please please tell me there's something you can do."

"Oh magic? I can get Scruffy and we can do some testing…"

Megara shook her head. "We're not poking his eyes out."

"...Okay noninvasive testing. But man that's so cool! Your eyes look great! I wish my eyes did that."

Axis sighed. "Believe me, you don't want these eyes."

"Commander!" Rox greeted, coming in with Canach. She immediately spotted Aurene chewing in the corner. "Oh my…"

Canach grumbled. "Oh great, she's big enough to eat people now...What's with your eyes Axis?"

"Whoa he's right, your eyes are different," Rox said. "And what's with that outfit?"

Axis wanted nothing more than to run out of the room and hide his face.

* * *

Axis sat on the bench as Gorrik and Blish worked tests on his eyes. They took eye drop samples, laser testing, and even took his blood. The human felt sick to his stomach as the asura and golem looked over the results.

Taimi limped over and helped Gorrik analyze the blood.

Blish held up his magic reader. "It seems to be that there are only traces of magic in your eyes, thus causing your eyes to appear a different color."

Taimi hopped into her golem, Scruffy. "Hmm yeah Scruffy's magic detection picks up the same traces from Awakened. You're no more a lich than they are."

"Is there any way to remove this from my eyes?" Axis pleaded.

Gorrik held up a magnifying glass to Axis' eye. "Nope, not unless you want to be blinded for life and have your eyes removed from your head."

"How is it going over here?" Megara asked as she walked over. "What's wrong?"

Axis turned away from her, refusing eye contact with someone so beautiful and untainted. "Nothing...Absolutely nothing…"

"You sure?" she reached out a hand to touch him. He got up.

"Yes," he said, walking away. Megara couldn't help but feel hurt as he brushed her off. He wouldn't even look at her.

"Might wanna give him some time," said Zaeim, Spearmarshal of the Sunspears. "Having the eyes of Joko is not something I envy."

The understatement of the year.

* * *

He sat down by the river in the dead of the night and stared at the crystal clear water. The eyes of the lich stared back.

A monster he was. He ripped off a piece of cloth from his black armor. It draped over his hands. It was worth concealing his eyes from the world. The lich was gone, the only remnants left was his eyes in a mortal vessel.


End file.
